This is a Blog for those interested in following hard after His heart. Those willing to strive to live a moment by moment life as we go through the transformation process with Him. It is not an easy life but the Father expects each of us to become an offering for His pleasure. So, if this is you, then let’s journey together hand in hand. I am humbled that you have chosen to walk with me. Thanks!

Social Media Buttons - Click to Share this Page

05 July, 2013

What it Cost to be a True Christian

By J. C Ryle

Let
therebe no mistake about my meaning. I am not examining what it costs to save
a Christian’s soul. I know well that it costs nothing less than the blood of
the Son of God to provide atonement, and to redeem man from hell. The price
paid for our redemption was nothing less than the death of Jesus Christ on Calvary. We “are bought with
a price.” “Christ gave himself a ransom for all” (1 Cor. 6:20; 1 Tim. 2:6). But all
this is wide of the question. The point I want to consider is another one
altogether. It is what a man must be ready to give up if he wishes to
be saved. It is the amount of sacrifice a man must submit to if he intends to
serve Christ. It is in this sense that I raise the question, “What does it
cost?” And I believe firmly that it is a most important one.

I
grant freely that it costs little to be a mere outward Christian. A man has
only got to attend a place of worship twice on Sunday, and to be tolerablymoral during the week, and he has gone as far as thousands around him ever go
in religion — All this is cheap and easy work: it entails no self-denial or
self-sacrifice. If this is saving Christianity, and will take us to heaven when
we die, we must alter the description of the way of life, and write, “Wide is
the gate and broad is the way that leads to heaven!”

But
it does cost something to be a real Christian, according to the standard of the
Bible. There are enemies to be overcome, battles to be fought, sacrifices to be
made, an Egypt to be forsaken, a
wilderness to be passed through, a cross to be carried, a race to be run.
Conversion is not putting a man in an armchair and taking him easily to heaven.
It is the beginning of a mighty conflict, in which it costs much to win the
victory. Hence arises the unspeakable importance of “counting the cost.”

Let
me try to show precisely and particularly what it costs to be a true Christian.
Let us suppose that a man is disposed to take service with Christ, and feels
drawn and inclined to follow Him. Let us suppose that some affliction, or some
sudden death, or an awakening sermon, has stirred his conscience, and made him
feel the value of his soul and desire to be a true Christian. No doubt there is
everything to encourage him. His sins may be freely forgiven, however many and
great. His heart may be completely changed, however cold and hard. Christ and
the Holy Spirit, mercy and grace, are all ready for him. But still he should
count the cost.

Let us see particularly, one by one, the things that his
religion will cost him.

(1)
For one thing, it will cost him his self-righteousness. He must cast
away all pride and high thoughts, and conceit of his own goodness. He must be
content to go to heaven as a poor sinner, saved only by free grace, and owing
allto the merit and righteousness of another. He must really feel as well as
say the Prayer-book words — that he has “erred and gone astray like a lost
sheep,” that he has “left undone the things he ought to have done, and done the
things he ought not to have done, and that there is no health in him.” He must
be willing to give up all trust in his own morality, respectability, praying,
Bible reading, church-going, and sacrament-receiving, and to trust in nothing
but Jesus Christ.

Now
this sounds hard to some. I do not wonder. “Sir,” said a godly ploughman to the
well-known James Hervey, of Weston Favell, it is, harder to deny proud self
than sinful self. But it is absolutely necessary.” Let us set down this item
first and foremost in our account. To be a true Christian it will cost a man
His self righteousness.

(2)
For another thing, it will cost a man his sins. He must be willing to
give up every habit and practice which is wrong in God’s sight. He must set his
face against it, quarrel with it, break off from it, fight with it, crucify it,
andlabour to keep it under, whatever the world around him may say or think. He
must do this honestly and fairly.

There must be no separate truce with any
special sin which he loves. He must count all sins as his deadly
enemies, and hate every false way. Whether little or great, whether
open or secret, all his sins must be thoroughly renounced. They may struggle
hard with him every day, and sometimes almost get the mastery over him. But hemust never give way to them. He must keep up a perpetual war with his sins. It
is written — “Cast away from you all your transgressions.” — “Break off thysins and iniquities.” — “Cease to do evil.” (Ezek. 18:31; Daniel 4:27; Isa.
1:16).

About Me

M. J. André has been walking with God for about 14 years
now. 7 of those 14 years have been spent broken at the feet of God through an
unending and excruciating wilderness process that left the soul undone!